Complete the header template across Partnership, Kernel, Deployment and Plugin

Finishes the pass: every script now documents its safeguards, and the deliberate absences
in the sourced libraries are recorded so they are not "corrected" later.

load_config.sh

@@ -36,6 +36,65 @@
 #   This loader sources whatever conf files ARE present — sparse checkout handles the rest.
 #
 # ==============================================================================================
+# OPERATIONAL SAFEGUARDS
+# ==============================================================================================
+#
+# No Root, No Lock, No detect_hosts on Load — Deliberate
+#   Sourced by every script in the ecosystem, including read-only ones. A root check here
+#   would gate all of them, a lock would be taken on every source, and auto-calling
+#   detect_hosts() would exit the caller on an unknown hostname before it could handle that
+#   itself. The executable scripts own those gates. Do not add them here.
+#
+# Fatal on Missing common.sh
+#   Aborts loudly if common.sh is absent. Every downstream script assumes log(), error(),
+#   acquire_lock() and detect_hosts() exist; continuing without them would produce
+#   command-not-found errors scattered through unrelated scripts instead of one clear cause.
+#
+# Adapter Load Is Optional
+#   A missing Plugin/$PLATFORM/adapter.sh is tolerated so the ecosystem can run before the
+#   plugin directory exists — bootstrap and early install paths depend on that.
+#
+# Load Order Is Enforced, Not Incidental
+#   confs before common.sh before adapter. common.sh needs HOST* to already be set, and the
+#   adapter needs common.sh's output helpers. Reordering breaks both silently.
+#
+# Partner Confs Are Cache-Only
+#   Partner host*.conf files load from the tmpfs RAM cache, never from disk. Sparse checkout
+#   means this host has no partner conf in the repo, and reading a stale on-disk copy would
+#   resurrect credentials the partner has since rotated.
+#
+# ==============================================================================================
+# CONFIGURATION
+# ==============================================================================================
+#
+# This file is the thing that loads configuration, so it consumes almost none itself. The one
+# input it must find on its own:
+#
+#   /boot/config/plugins/varaverk/varaverk.cfg
+#       SCRIPTS_DIR   the authoritative install path — everything else derives from it
+#       PLATFORM      selects which Plugin/<platform>/adapter.sh gets sourced
+#
+# It then defines the paths the rest of the ecosystem builds on:
+#
+#   CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR   /tmp/.cache/vv/d — tmpfs partner conf cache, cleared each reboot
+#   ARR_CACHE_DIR        /tmp/arr_cache   — tmpfs, restored from DATA_DIR on demand
+#
+# Everything else (STATE_DIR, DATA_DIR, thresholds, credentials) comes out of master.conf and
+# host*.conf, which this file sources rather than defines.
+#
+# ==============================================================================================
+# RUNTIME MODES
+# ==============================================================================================
+#
+# None — sourced, never executed. Every script begins with:
+#
+#   SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
+#   source "$SCRIPT_DIR/../load_config.sh"
+#
+# It takes no arguments and honours no flags. parse_args() arrives via common.sh and is
+# called by the script itself afterwards.
+#
+# ==============================================================================================
 # DESIGN PRINCIPLES
 # ==============================================================================================
 #